Christians occasionally run up against the argument that religious wars recklessly took the lives of thousands of people. Take the Crusades… So of course Christianity is a religion of hate and violence, and it is hypocritical for purportedly teaching about loving one’s neighbor at the same time. Guilt by association is a hard reputation to shed. It is hard for me to have to defend myself over a crime for which I don’t feel guilty, especially when I don’t feel guilty because I wasn’t alive then. I want to be loyal, but consistency and honesty are more important to me.

Pro-life groups have the taint of extremists who bombed abortion clinics. But I didn’t do that or condone that. In fact, I cannot remember a bombing of a clinic in America since I turned 13 and started paying attention. Is murdering millions of babies ok because one of the thousands of protestors was inexcusably destructive?

Zionists have been shamed by a branch of extremists who wanted to use terror to further their cause. In the case of Zionism, as opposed to that of Islam, the difference was that they were condemned by the mainstream. Strategists, leaders, and supporters of the state of Israel sought peaceful means of creating a Jewish homeland. Only once attacked and threatened by hostile (to say the least) neighbors who denied their existence and legitimacy did Israel take a position of miraculous strength, and apply military power.

Committing a crime yourself and framing your enemies for it is classic double-agent strategy. The ultimate example is Emperor Palpatine and the Clone Wars in Star Wars. Or if you’re more for history than fantasy, you might refer to Hitler excusing his invasions of Austria, Czechoslavakia, and separately of Poland. Yes. We’re talking the trigger for World War II.

During our involvement in World War II, America made the distasteful and unjust decision to inter our Japanese civilians in labor camps. In the interest of humble honesty, I always feel obligated to admit that occasionally my country is not defending virtue and liberty. I’m a fan of history, not names and dates so much as the connections of the dots. What were the politics, the motivations, the idealisms that drove countries to war and revolt, to peace and surrender? What little difference in choices would have changed the course of the world?

So I have to note that the president who ordered Japanese interment during World War II was a Democrat. Knowing that makes me feel a lot less responsible. There are almost two countries in this America. They alternate power, a check and balance between irresponsible oppression and defensive freedom. I never realized it before, but I’m more or less loyal to the Republican America.

But.

My Republican America participates and upholds the same Constitution that occasionally puts Democrat America in power. Even if I’m voting against them, I’m still endorsing the system. How much responsibility does that give me?

Some lifestyles are a package deal. For example, I’m learning that to believe Church should be held in homes is a lifestyle. Substituting a gathering in a house doing all the biblical things for the Sunday morning “worship service” in a sanctuary isn’t sufficient. My friends would call the package living missionally. I already believe that Christian community does life together and that the most effective Church in history met more than once a week.

Perhaps another package deal is living in a Republic requires political involvement. I can’t just vote and say I’ve done my part. In fact, for decades under the US Constitution there was no suffrage for women, and their participation in the government had to be more involved and influential than that. They had to do marches and grassroots campaigns. We must do that and more, like paying attention to our representatives in all three branches of government, and proactively holding them accountable. Voting is saying, “Yes, I believe in and endorse this system.” The responsibility, then, is ours to do everything we can to ensure that the system is honorable and efficient.